Liv Holm Andersen, who is a trainee in the Danish Embassy of Greece, has visited the new liberal party of Greece, “Democratic Alliance”. In this article she is drawing a picture of the party and its situation through an interview of the party’s campaigning leader Mr. Anastasopoulos.
I meet Mr. Giorgios Anastasopoulos at his office on the 4th floor of the building in Syggrou Avenue in the center of Athens, which is now hosting Greece’s newest political party, the liberal center party, “Democratic Alliance”.
Mr. Giorgios Anastasopoulos, who is the daily campaigning manager of “Democratic Alliance”, is as many of Democratic Alliance’s leading figures a former member of Greece’s conservative party, “New Democracy” (ND), where he with his own words was part of the ”liberal – rather big – minority”. As he furthermore explains, the Greek liberals often, as a result of Greece not having liberal alternatives, found political representation within “New Democracy”, which naturally made the party suffer from internal fights between the conservatives and the liberals.
One attempt to make a liberal party was sought a few years ago by former minister for industry, economy and energy Stefanos Manos with his new party “Drasi”, but it didn’t turn out to be a very large success. Now this is tried once more from scratch and so far the attempt doesn’t seem to be doomed, but it will indeed be interesting to follow the development and actions of Greece’s new liberal voice.
A new party is founded
It all started in May 2010 when “New Democracy” decided not to support the loan package suggested by the IMF (World Bank ed.), the ECB (European Central Bank ed.) and the EU – and approved by Greece’s socialist government – in order to solve the serious economic crisis of Greece. The liberals of “New Democracy” saw this as the ultimate proof that “New Democracy” didn’t want to take the responsibility of a serious opposition party, had a generally populist approach to politics and last but not least that “New Democracy” was not even in financial politics a liberal party.
This led to a large and lasting dispute within “ND” with the result that a group of liberal members decided to leave ND and shortly after, in July 2010, those liberals formed a liberal think tank, “Forum for Greece” and in November this think tank grew into the foundation of a new party, “Democratic Alliance”, led by the former conservative foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis, whose father is a grand old man in the conservative party of New Democracy and whose husband, Paulos Bakoyannis, who was also a politician, was murdered in 1989 by the left-wing, Greek terror group “17th of November”. That she is a politician of freedom becomes clear by visiting her office on the 8th floor of the building, where a whole wall is covered by pictures of people who, as Mr. Anastasopoulos says “have meant something for freedom politically, socially or artistically” including great figures as Ghandi, Frida Karlo and Woody Allen.
A whole new approach
The Democratic Alliance is many times by the Greeks said to be “nothing but a new ND”, but Anastasopoulos assures me that this is not at all the case, as a matter of fact he points out that “Democratic Alliance is trying to combine the in a Greek context impossible, the individual freedom and the financial freedom, because why should you have to choose?”. He continues by explaining that in Greece the ones liberal of mind and values always voted for the left-wing (KKE (the communist party), SYRIZA (the left-socialist) and PASOK (the center socialists)) while the ones in favor of a liberal approach to financial politics and a slimmer state voted for the right wing. The left wing really didn’t turn out to be a very safe guarantee of neither individual freedom nor a progressive society and the right wing didn’t fulfill their obligations as “financial responsible” – and more importantly the ones wanting a progressive society and a liberal economy didn’t have nowhere to go. Therefore Democratic Alliance is trying with a, with Mr. Anastasopoulos’ words, “whole new approach to Greek politics”. This is done by offering a party to the group of liberal Greeks or the ones who are disappointed with respectively the left or the right. As Mr. Anastasopoulos says: “No matter if it is gay rights or reducing state, we are liberals and freedom is our greatest value and keyword, this is never seen before and this is naturally making the Greeks confused”. Also therefore the party keeps calling itself a “center party” even though this might not be entirely true, since the party is representing opinions from both the traditional left and the traditional right of Greek politics.
Mr. Anastasopoulos though is optimistic about the future and is now introducing a new campaign serving to promote the story, the values and the political ideas and solutions of Greece’s very new party. The flyer has a lot of information, a lot of text and big logos, but it hasn’t got neither that glamorous style (that is selling you the flyer more than its ideas) that is so typical for the right wing nor big picture of the party’s leader which is so often seen in the flyers of the left wing parties. So not only is Democratic Alliance trying to make a new approach to politics but also to the whole promotion, which is also seen from the party’s webpage where the party as the first party in Greece has chosen to make their budget public. This more than anything in a country that is on its knee from corruption – also within the political system – is a signal of honestly slightly unknown for the Greek population.
Mr. Anastasopoulos also tells that Democratic Alliance wants to introduce the axis of Miller in their materials in order to explain in a graphic way the position of a party that is both liberal in financial and in social matters and to make it clear that there indeed is a “hole” in the Greek political specter where a liberal party can fit in. As both a political science student and a social liberal, I can’t be anything but enchanted by this initiative.
“We have a great potential”
And how are the situation and the future perspective then for the Democratic Alliance? Well, as a small – and new party – it is having a rough time in the two-party system of Greece, where the real political successes are limited to one of the two main parties PASOK or ND, who often are in a position of making one-party majority governments. But the polls at the moment gives Democratic Alliance 2,8% of the votes which is close to the 3% that is the barrier to enter the parliament. Many polls are even kinder and give the party up till 4% of the votes.
Furthermore these polls are based on a situation where only 50-60% of the respondents are actually planning to vote at an election, so a new party as Democratic Alliance has the chance of getting success among the couch-votes who have lost trust in the same major parties “ruling equally bad the country”, as this quickly growing group of Greeks tend to claim – and which Democratic Alliance of course doesn’t hesitate to agree on.
Democratic Alliance for instance unlike ND agree on the loan package by the IMF, EBC and EU, but does not either agree with the financial measures taken by the PASOK-government, since these measures seen from the point of view of Democratic is not reducing state nor improving competition – rather quite the opposite. Democratic Alliance strikes the need of drastic reforms and liberalizations and in addition to this it underlines the need of supporting a progressive, European Greece with a modern mentality.
That this political approach isn’t entirely wrong and is actually received pretty well in a large share of the population is seen in the polls which ask people to agree or not agree with some basic political points. Here the points fitting with Democratic Alliance also fits with 10-15% of the respondents’ answers, which underlines that the party has “a great potential”, as Mr. Anastasopoulos says.
Last but not least another potential of the party lies in the fact of having more than 2000 volunteers and donors throughout Greece – who are donation many hours of volunteer work, gifts (as furniture, IT and so on) and money. Right now local offices which will basically cover the whole country are opening and the amount of members is rising. So Mr. Anastasopoulos has a reason to be an optimist.
“Liberal parties don’t need approval, we have trust”
Before I leave I get the grand tour round in the building and meet a lot of these smiling volunteers. In the whole building you notice this great spirit of campaigning which all politically people in periods of their life is living for.
There are many young people everywhere even though the party does not yet have a youth party. Anyway Mr. Anastasopoulos is quite sure that also this platform will be established within a near future. Because as he explains liberal and progressive values and the political work towards a different Greece is attractive to young people and a great share of the new members are in fact Greek youngsters.
I’m thinking to myself that perhaps Greece really has got a new political voice with this party – a liberal break through. At least this party, if it makes it to parliament, will be another party helping to shake a little the Greek two-party-system.
Only one thing bothers me as a European liberal and this is the answer given to me when I ask Mr. Anastasopoulos about which political group in the European Parliament Democratic Alliance intend to support, because this rather important matter “hasn’t been decided yet”. Let’s hope it will be decided soon and let’s hope the turn out will be that ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) will welcome a new party in their group.
As I thank Mr. Anastasopoulos for his time I remember to inform him that I’ll send a copy of the article before it is published, but he refuses with the sentence: “Liberal parties don’t need approval, we have trust”. A good impression on a liberal party in progress is made, now all there is, is to hope that Democratic Alliance will stick to the liberal path in the Greek context – and in the European context as well.
